Chaeles eidgely pue



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES RIDGELY PUE, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

GUN-WAD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 320,500, dated June 23,1885.

Application filed January 16, 1885. (No specimens.)

To aZZ 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES R. PUE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Baltimore city, in the State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Gun- Wads, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to construct a wad which shall combine elasticity and softness, will not burn or blow to pieces, and, by reason of its elasticity, expands by action of the ignited gas of the powder, thus making it gas-tight and causing an uniform resistance from the breech to the muzzle, and thus obviating the swelling or bursting of chokebored guns.

In constructing my improved wad, I prepare a felt or base composed of woolen rags, or scrap carpet, or burlap mixed with wool, cows hair, horse-hair, goats hair, or dogs hair, the proportions according to quality re quired, and felted in the usual way of manufacturing felt, and make my wads by cutting, punching, or otherwise separate them as is common in the art of making wads.

I am aware that wads have been made from felt placed between layers of cardboard, or of felt backed by card-board, and I am also aware of the improvement in making fur-mapped hats, the patent of Doubleday, No. 253,160, January 31, 1882, and of wool-felt faced with hair, the patent of Dodge, No. 314,810, March 31, 1885. Those improvements embrace, specially, a felt composed alone of wool and hair; and in the patent of Dodge there is first a layer of hair and then a layer of wool, and after being felted is then faced with hair, and mostly, as he says, used in piano'fortes; while mine for the wad is amixture of rags and scrap carpet and burlap with wool and hair, making a cheaper wad than any in use. 40

These constructions I do not claim; but

I claim- A gun-wad made from felt composed of woolen rags, scrap carpet and burlap mixed with wool and hair, substantially as set forth. 5

CHARLES RIDGELY PUE. Witn esses:

THOMAS NOAH REID, ARTHUR VINCENT MILHOLLAND, WILLIAM CONN. 

